Egisto Ott is at large. The former domestic secret service employee, accused of serious espionage against Austria, was released on Wednesday. The reason lies in the past.
The ex-BVT man, who allegedly betrayed Austrian state secrets to Russia, had filed a complaint against his pre-trial detention. This has now been granted. In short: there is no risk of committing the crime – this means that pre-trial detention is not admissible, according to the Vienna Supreme Court.
In 2017, Ott is said to have, among other things, transferred the business mobile phones of three former cabinet employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to the Russian domestic secret service.
Canoe accident as an excuse
The devices fell into the water during a boat trip of the Ministry of the Interior when a canoe capsized. Ott and a forensic scientist – who is under investigation for embezzlement – then allegedly led those affected to believe that their mobile phones were unusable.
More specifically, he was arrested on March 29, 2024 and taken into custody on March 30, 2024 on the grounds of “suspicion of abuse of office, secret information to the detriment of the Republic of Austria, violation of official secrecy” and other violations.
“No further crimes committed”
The court’s exact reasoning for the current dismissal: There is “no evidence that the suspect committed further crimes in early 2021 after a previous pre-trial detention.”
The facts on which the strong suspicion was based date from before the pre-trial detention imposed at the time, which means that a new arrest cannot be justified.
“He left Josefstadt prison about an hour ago,” a spokesman for Vienna’s regional court confirmed shortly after noon on Wednesday. Ott denies having anything to do with obtaining the cell phones and passing them on.
“To hit with a fist”
Instead, the cellphones were “placed in an envelope in the mailbox of my apartment in Vienna,” Ott claimed in an interview on March 30, 2024. He then “smashed the phones with his fist.”
However, the former chief inspector of the BVT is also suspected of having sold a laptop with potentially explosive data to the Russian secret service. Ex-Wirecard board member Jan Marsalek, who now works for the Russian secret service, is said to have orchestrated the deal.
As for the so-called SINA laptops, Ott is said to have at least confessed to knowing five in total, one of which was “abroad, but not in Russia.” He is presumed innocent.
Source: Krone
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